Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter
TITLE: Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter
YEAR: 1994
DIR/PROD: Deborah Hoffman
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 60
SOURCE: Women Make Movies, 462 Broadway, Suite 500, New York, NY 10013 (212) 925 0606, Fax: 212-925-2052
TEXT: Oscar winning documentary is a moving, personal story which illuminates the relationship between the filmmaker and her mother, who suffers from an advancing case of Alzheimer's disease. Was broadcast in 1995 as part of the PBS POV series. Note to file: On April 23, 2002, Doris Hoffman, Deborah's mother died at the age of 94 in Oakland, CA, eight years after this film was released. This film won more than 30 awards, including a Peabody and an Emmy.
Anna's Summer
TITLE: Anna's Summer
YEAR: 2001
DIR/PROD: Jeanine Meerapfel
COUNTRY: Germany
LANGUAGE: German, Greek, Spanish, w/Eng. subtitles
TIME: 35mm / 103 minutes
SOURCE: Andrea Breitkeuz, Media Luna Andrea@medialuna-entertainment.de MediaLuna-Entertainment.De Koln, Germany OR
Heike Krieg Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG. Hochstadenstrasse 1-3
D-50674 Cologne Koln Germany Phone: 49-221-1392222 Fax: 49-221-1392224
festival@medialuna-entertainment.de
TEXT: Veteran filmmaker Jeanine Meerapfel (MALOU, LA AMIGA) returns with a sensual, amusing, and visually stunning work that traces the psychological journey of a 50-year-old photojournalist, Anna, who returns to the Greek island of her childhood to close a chapter of her life, and in the process unexpectedly begins a new one. Anna (played by Spanish actress Angela Molina) welcomes the friendly spirits of her Sephardic-Jewish ancestors when she discovers an old family trunk in the abandoned home that she has just inherited. What emerges from the ghosts of memory are long-buried remnants of family history: an odyssey of exile, deportation and forbidden love. Her dreamlike encounters are punctuated by cooking spells and the sexual attention of the handsome, and younger, Nico. With an enchanting Greek music score, this story blends memories of days past with the colors and sound of today's Mediterranean atmosphere. (sfjff.org)
Anna, a 50-year-old photojournalist of Sephardic Jewish origin, leaves her home in Berlin after her mother's death and journeys to the picturesque Greek island of her childhood to claim her inheritance, the family house. She plans to pack up the house quickly and sell it, but what on the surface seems like a simple mission becomes more difficult as the woman comes across old family documents that draw her into the depths of her memory and family history. Memories, secrets and ghosts from the past begin to surface - her father's odyssey of exile and deportation, his escape from the Nazis, his love for another woman before he married her mother, Anna's recently-deceased German lover, and more. As she confronts the multiple stories that form her own life story, Anna recognizes her love for her family home, a realization that will help her move on...
Jeanine Meerapfel, whom we remember for her fine debut Malou (1981), presents a poetic, sensual, melancholic and often amusing work. The film's layered plot is structured by the protagonist's memories, and not in any chronological order. Successfully gliding between time, place and language, Meerapfel explores the highly personal themes of identity, emigration and family history. The breathtaking location cinematography and rich soundtrack add to the atmosphere of the film, while Angela Molina gives an excellent performance as the pivotal character surrounded by so many friendly ghosts - Jerusalem Film Festival.
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